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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoCourtney Hergesheimer | DISPATCHAbout one-fourth of the original 60,000 cubic yards of excavated soil and shale that Columbus Site Development stored near Alum Creek, just south of Morse Road, last summer has been removed.

The 60,000 cubic yards of dirt and rocks piled near Alum Creek is finally being whittled down
and is supposed to disappear by mid-February.

That’s what environmentalists have wanted to hear for nearly six months.

“It’s better that it will be gone,” said David Roseman of Friends of Alum Creek and Tributaries.
“We would love to see the area returned to its natural setting. Anything beyond that is a
concern."

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issued a storm-water construction permit to Columbus
Site Development on July 31, after the company had placed the dirt and shale on the site off Morse
Road.

Heather Lauer, an Ohio EPA spokeswoman, said she could find nothing in agency files to indicate
that the state cited the company for storm-water pollution violations. Nor did she find any
complaints.

She also said the company was not fined for obtaining a permit after the fact.

Columbus Site prepares construction sites for development. The soil and shale were excavated
from a construction site for a parking garage at nearby Easton Town Center and dumped west of the
creek. The company placed a 3-foot fence around the site to prevent sediment runoff.

Each day, thousands of motorists pass the mound on their way to and from I-270 or Easton.

About 25 percent of the material already has been removed, said Steven Legg, Columbus Site
Development’s president. The site should be cleared by the middle of next month, he said. The
material will be used as fill at other sites, he said.

In an email, Laura Young Mohr, a spokeswoman for the Columbus Department of Public Utilities,
wrote that shale from the site is being used to fill in a lagoon at the nearby Hap Cremean Water
Treatment Plant.

Roseman and others were concerned because sediment runoff can kill fish and other wildlife by
reducing oxygen in a stream, he said.

“Dirt is bad,” he said. “The largest pollutant of waterways by volume is dirt.”